Anthropomorphic Pendants

Neues Museum

Material: Bronze

Date: 16th–12th Century BC

Origin: Vilshofen, Regensburg, Bavaria (Germany)

Berlin-Spindlersfeld (Germany)

Bonyhád, Komitat Tolna (Hungary)

This display features a group of anthropomorphic pendants from the Central European Bronze Age. Crafted in bronze, they vary in size and form but share stylized, abstract human-like silhouettes—some with broad, triangular lower sections and others with open, heart-shaped designs that hint at torsos and limbs.

Such figures represent deities rendered in simplified, symbolic form, a practice common across Central Europe during the Late Bronze Age. Their abstract style reflects a shift from naturalistic representation toward ritual symbolism, emphasizing spiritual meaning over physical likeness.

These pendants likely served as amulets, worn for protection or as devotional objects invoking divine presence. Their recurring shapes and patterns reveal a shared religious vocabulary across distant regions, pointing to widespread beliefs in fertility, solar, or celestial deities.

Museum label reference:

Deities appear in Central Europe in abstract representations that often had the character of amulets.

Original Text:

“Gottheiten erscheinen in Zentraleuropa in abstrakten Darstellungen, die häufig Amulettcharakter hatten.”

Supplementary images:

Anthropomorphic bronze pendants representing abstract deities and amulets from the Central European Bronze Age (16th-12th century BCE)

Taken on Tuesday 06th of August 2019

Device: Google

Model: Pixel 3 XL

Genre: 16th–12th Century BC

Source: Berlin, Germany

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